


Avengers A-B-C, 1-2-3

by CatherineJosephineMarie007



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alphabet Prompt, Alternate Universe, Avengers Frienships, Coulson Lives, F/M, Gen, Just an excuse to use an OFC I came up with, Oh, Pre Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D but they'll be there near the end, Pretend like everything after the Avengers didn't happen, and we're pretending to still be okay with Grant Ward
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-02-21 18:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2477354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatherineJosephineMarie007/pseuds/CatherineJosephineMarie007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My friend and I have been working on this Alphabet-prompt thing for a WHILE, with nothing published. I got bored. Decided to publish. Just remember, we started writing right after Iron Man 3 came out, so it's completely AU now.</p>
<p>My take on what would happen after the Avengers found out Phil Coulson was alive and being kept in a medical facility. Lots of feels, and will eventually mesh with the characters of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A is for Appreciate

**Author's Note:**

> All belongs to Joss, Stan, Marvel and Disney. Unless you want my crippling student loans, don't sue me. Or actually, sue me-- I don't want my crippling student loans.

“We want to break into S.H.I.E.L.D.” Tony Stark slapped a file onto Agent Latham’s desk and stood there looking extremely pleased.

Agent Latham was Agent Coulson’s replacement; she took the job five weeks after his death and one week after everyone else at clearance level six refused the job. Fury brought her in from Melbourne, where she’d been head of a small unit gathering intelligence from Asia, and ‘promoted’ her to a glorified babysitter for five grown adults. _Can’t wait till Thor returns and I get one more_ , she’d thought at the time.

Latham looked over her glasses at Iron Man. “I can’t say that plan has my seal of approval, Mr Stark.”

“Mr Stark is my father,” he said for at least the sixtieth time since they’d met. “ _Tony_ wants to take _Stevie_ —” he pulled Captain America away from where he was loitering in the doorway, “And go rescue his childhood chum from Mount _Airy_. And I made it rhyme, which is, you know, not unimpressive.”

“You what?” Latham opened the file to find a series of full-colour security room stills. The white room and cot looked like just about any detainment centre S.H.I.E.L.D had, but the small ‘MtA-3G4’ denounced it as the Mount Airy detention facility, building 3, room G4. In the back of her mind she wondered how Stark had found the facility at all, but the rest of her was nearly aghast at the subject of the photos. A young-ish man was depicted in all of them, sitting perfectly still on the floor, facing the doorway. He had long dark hair and, most importantly, a metal arm. “Is that…” she looked up at Steve Rogers “That really is James Buchanan Barnes?”

“Apparently.” Rogers' expression jumped alternately from shocked and numb, staring into her eyes. “You didn’t know?”

“This is above my security clearance. And I thought I had the highest there was.” She shook her head. The time-stamp indicated the recording had been less than a month before. “Where did you find these?”

“I’ve had Fury under surveillance since the battle of New York,” Stark shrugged off her disapproving look. “He lied to us. And I don’t need any more secrets, not from someone who claims to have the world’s best interests at heart. So I’ve been slowly worming Jarvis into all of S.H.I.E.L.D’s secure files, starting with everything even remotely related to Phase Two. You do know what Phase Two is, don’t you, Agent?”

“I was read in.” Latham nodded.

“Well, apparently Bucky here was brought in in the hopes of using his super shiny arm candy as an asset. He had been working for the Russians.”

“They call him The Winter Soldier.” A new voice said from the doorway. The men parted so Latham could see Romanoff standing there at attention. “Fury wants to see you all. He’s authorised me to tell you Barnes’ name.”

“You knew him. You knew he was alive. That I wasn’t alone.” Steve turned his sad blue eyes on his teammate.

Natasha looked regretful for just a second, before becoming the Black Widow once more. “They told me he’d died. Soldier was one of the ones who made me who I am.” She said quietly. “If I had thought he was still out there, I would have told you.” They stared at each other for a moment, and then Steve nodded; whatever he saw in her gaze was obviously enough for him.

“We need to go after him.”

“I appreciate that, Captain, but you know he won’t be the same.” Latham allowed some of the sympathy she felt into her tone. “If he helped train Agent Romanoff, then he’s been in… well, he’s been privy to some horrible things. More horrible than we can imagine. He’s been changed.”

“Which is why he should know he isn’t alone.” Steve stood resolutely in front of her. He clearly wasn’t going to back down. Latham sighed.

“Nothing I say will prevent you.”

“Thank you!” Tony popped a ‘p’ on the end of his words, swiping up the photos and parading out of her office. “To the jet, Captain.”

“Oversee them,” Latham told the Black Widow. “I’ll check on Barton while you’re out.” Romanoff nodded, reluctant to leave her partner, but followed Rogers and Stark.

Agent Barton had not recovered from Loki’s intrusion into his mind as quickly as Fury would have wished; though Fury likely wished he’d have recovered immediately. He had moved into the newly-christened ‘Avengers Tower’ without a word or a complaint, and had remained as silent ever since. Latham had been on assignment with the team nearly three months, and she’d only seen Clint Barton twice during that time—once when they’d met, with the archer giving her a nod then walking off, and once in the middle of the night when she’d been going home very late and seen him wandering the halls, white as a ghost with sunken cheeks and hollow eyes. His nightmares were one thing, but after reading his file, Latham thought that in all likelihood Clint Barton was grieving.

She’d only known Phil Coulson by reputation, but he’d been a legend—he’d also been Barton and Romanoff’s handler. While Natasha grieved quite clearly, she had been able to get up and go on a few missions with Captain Rogers and his new friend Wilson. It helped her to occupy her mind. For Barton, it seemed like his mind was occupied remembering to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. Latham had been read in on everything that had happened on the helicarrier, so she could help the Avengers cope in any way she could. It wasn’t a huge leap to assume Barton held himself partially responsible for Coulson’s death.

After finishing the report she’d been working on all afternoon, she locked her office and went up to the residential floors; Barton and Romanoff’s floor was first above the Research and Development labs where Banner and Stark spent all their time. The elevator let her off and she walked down the marble hallway to his door. “Agent Barton,” she knocked, trying to be polite. There was no answer, just the metallic sweep of the lock being turned. She entered into the large living room, which was dark despite it being three in the afternoon; blackout drapes covered the floor to ceiling windows.

“What can I do for you, Agent Latham?” Barton’s voice sounded emptily from one of the exposed beams above her. She turned around and directed her gaze upward; he lay there on the beam, staring at the ceiling. “Do I owe you a report?” He hadn’t been on a mission since the Chitauri invasion, so she knew this was meant to be rhetorical.

“Only if you’d like to tell me how you are. Oral form only, I don’t need a write up.” Barton turned his head in her direction, not looking at her but allowing her to see his face. It was twisted into a thin smirk.

“Where’s Tasha?”

“I sent her to Maryland with Stark and Rogers. Said I’d come and make sure you didn’t need anything.”

“Nope.” He replied.

“Would you like to track their progress? They’re going to break out the Winter Soldier.”

“Who?”

“Evidently he’s Bucky Barnes, Captain Rogers’ friend.”

“Two oldies but goodies.” Clint hadn’t moved, but his smile seemed less harsh as he thought about Steve.

“They should be on their way into the facility now.” Latham had Jarvis pull up the exterior camera on Iron Man’s suit and pushed her comm. into her ear. “Agent Romanoff, report.”

“Approaching the facility now,” Romanoff said quietly. “Fortunately nobody seems inclined to stop us.”

“Act like you belong and you will,” Latham smirked. She sat on Clint’s leather sofa. She watched in silence as Iron Man walked his way down from the roof into the facility. She could see Natasha swiping a card to get into a secure ward. The light turned red, intimating that they weren’t allowed on that level. Tony’s hand appeared and he blasted the door away from its hinges. The camera wobbled to the rhythm of Iron Man’s steps. They got to door G4, and Iron Man said, “Knocking on the door,” as he blasted it down.

Steve was first in, standing facing his oldest friend, who had seemingly jumped up at the noise. “Bucky,” he said lowly. “Do you remember me?” Bucky attacked, but Steve was ready; when the Winter Soldier threw a punch, Steve dodged it and pinned him up against the wall, one arm twisted behind him. “We’re here to help you.” He assured the other man. “Is there anyone else here?” When Barnes didn’t answer, Steve looked to Tony. “You’d better check.” Stark moved and Steve and Bucky were out of sight; he began welding through the locks with one of his blasters, checking every room before moving on. One had an unconscious woman in it, and a check of the chart at her bedside revealed that she was comatose. A few doors after that there was an older man, eyes glazed over, laying in a cold sweat.

“Holy shit.” Stark’s tinny voice filled the room. “Agent?”

“Stark?” Latham asked through the comm. “Stark, what’s going on?” Clint had slipped silently down from the rafters to watch, and Latham allowed herself some pride that she didn’t jump as he spoke up from behind her.

“Phil.”


	2. B is for Black Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Phil remembers of his ordeal.

The last thing Phil remembered was Fury appearing in his field of vision. They seemed to be having a conversation, but he wasn’t sure what either of them was talking about. Then he remembered the Avengers.  
“This never would have worked if they didn’t have a…”  
Then he blacked out.  
And he’d thought that was the end—until he woke up in pain.  
The room he was in was loud, and every one of his nerve endings were on fire, as though he’d been flayed and his entire under-layer was exposed. A face in a surgical mask appeared in his field of vision; whoever this was had kind eyes. How could the person doing this to him have kind eyes?  
“Stay still, Agent Coulson,” the doctor said. He placed a plastic mask over his mouth, and Coulson instinctually inhaled. It wasn’t loud anymore; just before the blackness called, he realised that the noise had been his screams.  
0oOo0  
When he awoke next, he was alone—he had no real memory of his surroundings after the helicarrier, so this could have been the room with the doctor in it, or it could be somewhere new. Breathing hurt, and every heartbeat thudded through his body, his head, his eyes—it made him nauseous.  
A doctor came in, and Coulson dimly registered his kind eyes.  
“Hello, Agent—no, don’t move,” he advised as Phil began to shift in his bed. “You’ll irritate your injuries. I’m afraid your recovery will be a little tougher than we first thought. But all of that can wait until you’re more lucid.” He hung a bag filled with clear liquid on the stand next to the bed and connected it to Phil’s IV drip. “This is a protein drip, should keep you going while you rest. Now, Agent Coulson, the best thing for your system is a lot of sleep.”  
He followed the doctor’s advice. His room had no windows, so he didn’t know how long he’d been there, or if he was sleeping through day or night. But he must’ve been there a long while, if the growth of beard scratching against his pillow was anything to go by. Every so often he’d wake long enough to stomach an actual meal, but more often than not he’d dream of Loki and bring the food right back up again.  
He was helped out of bed and into an upright shower on a regular schedule, but the hot water beating against his chest was more painful than breathing. After who know how long, he began to hallucinate—the drugs, he reasoned. He was hearing metal clanging and angry voices because of the drugs.  
His morphine drip kept him barely lucid and mostly (blissfully) unconscious. It wasn’t until Iron Man burst into his room that the hallucinations became visual.  
“Holy shit. Agent?”  
Huh, Phil thought, Even in my mind Stark sound like Stark.  
The Stark-vision called out for someone, and then Natasha appeared in the doorway. Her expression when she saw him didn’t falter, but her eyes changed.  
“Nat,” Coulson murmured.  
“Permission to bring in one more.” Natasha said, pressing one finger to her earpiece. When whoever was on the end of the line replied, she covered his hand with one of hers. “Don’t worry, Phil, we’re going to take you home."


	3. C is for Challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Natasha take their first run at Bucky.

      “How are you going to play this?” Natasha asked quietly from next to him. Steve couldn’t tear his gaze away from the screen in front of them.

       Bucky sat on a metal bench in one of SHIELD’s interrogation rooms. The bench was bolted to the floor and all other furniture had been moved out, per Natasha’s request. She knew far better than Steve what the Winter Soldier was capable of.

       “I have no idea,” he finally admitted. “But shouldn’t you be at the Tower?” They’d brought Coulson back with them to the Tower, and Banner and Stark’s medical team were making him comfortable. Stark had also demanded they run their own battery of tests on ‘Agent’, to make sure SHIELD had been treating him right.

       Natasha shook her head. “Coulson is unconscious. I can’t be of any help there.”

       Steve shook his head. “He still looks—” he broke off. “He still looks like Bucky, you know? I almost didn’t block that first punch, it threw me off so bad.” He drew one hand over his face. “How is it possible that he still looks—young?”

        “The rumor was that he was frozen—put on ice until the KGB had use of him. I met him a few years after he was unthawed the first time—twenty years ago, in The Red Room.”

        “Do I want to know what that is?”

        “It’s where they teach people to be like me.” All of a sudden she sounded tired. “They teach you to kill, but there’s… there’s more to it than that. There’s a mental component. Russia turned people into machines.”

        Steve eyed Bucky’s metal arm. “I can see that.”

        “That was something else.” She said. “I don’t know if he was experimented on, or if he lost the arm in an accident, but it’s part of him now.” She looked at him not like Black Widow, but like his friend. “And you have to accept that part. He isn’t going to be the same.”

        “I know. I don’t care.” Steve pushed away from the desk and made his way down to the interrogation room. Natasha watched on the monitor as he flung open the door. Barnes mumbled something profane in Russian at the sight of Steve. “You certainly didn’t speak Russian last time we saw each other.” Steve leaned against the wall. “The language barrier will be a challenge.” He fixed Bucky with his intense stare. “Do you understand me now?”

        Barnes eyed him from behind his curtain of dark hair, then nodded.

        “Do you know who I am?”

         This time the pause was longer. When it appeared no nod would be forthcoming, Steve began to reminisce. “I remember being so jealous of you; tall, handsome, good with girls. You’d bring me with you on double dates and I knew it steamed you when my girl’s face fell when she saw me... And you got drafted, first try, grade- A. I tried a dozen times, pretending to be from Buffalo, New Jersey, Connecticut. Never passed. Of course, that was before all… this.” He gestured to himself. “And before that.” He pointed to Bucky’s metal arm. “My name’s Steve. Steve Rogers.”

       “Steve…” Barnes replied slowly, and Natasha held her breath. More than a minute passed in tense silence before he spoke again. “Where are we?”

       Steve stepped closer to his old friend. “SHIELD headquarters, New York.”

       He nodded to show he understood, then winced around the next question. “What year is it?”

       “…2012.” Steve said. They both wore matching expressions of displacement, of loss.

       “They did things to me—sometimes I remember, and sometimes…”

       “Natasha told me what you’d been through. The Red Room.”

       Barnes nodded again, quickly this time, getting it out of the way. “Do they think I’m a lost cause?”

       “You aren’t.” Steve replied fiercely.

       “But do the doctors… will I be myself again?”

        “Maybe. They don’t know.” Barnes started to shake—Natasha assumed they were sobs. “I’m willing to put in the time if you are, Buck. It’ll be tough going, I know that. But I’ve met good people here, and they could be there for you too if you let them.”

        Somewhere between Steve’s sentences, Bucky’s actions became clear to Natasha. He wasn’t shaking with sobs—he was shaking in anger. Pressing the intercom into the interrogation room, she spoke calmly, “Steve, step away—” Barnes let out a cry and lunged forward, the metal arm breaking his manacles and reaching for Steve, screaming in Russian. Rogers sidestepped the blow and delivered one of his own with his elbow to Barnes’ neck, knocking him out.

Natasha met him in the hallway.

        “You okay?”

        He nodded. “This is going to take a lot of work. I’ll need someone who’s been there to help me.”

        She gave him a close-lipped smile. “Of course.”


	4. D is for Dog Tags

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Latham faces the music for Coulson and Bucky's "rescue".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, not mine. It belongs to Stan, Marvel, Disney, and the Whedons. Sue if you want my student loans!

Latham received a large manila envelope from headquarters the day after Coulson was brought back to the Tower. Inside was a contract signed by the Director, authorising her promotion to Level 7. Attached to it was a yellow post-it:  
HQ at 0900  
Latham swore under her breath; she’d been promoted, but it was to prevent her Director from looking like an idiot in front of the WSC. She checked the report—it was post-dated. Fury was covering, making it look like she’d been voluntarily read in on Phil Coulson’s case. She’d been promoted, but she had no doubt that she’d pay for it tonight at 9.  
-0-  
When the elevator let her off on the secure floor, Fury was waiting. He never waited personally. This was bad.

“Agent Latham.”

“Director.”

They began walking toward his office.

“Congratulations on your promotion.”

She hesitated, but pressed on. “You didn’t have to do that, sir; I would have kept it quiet.”

Fury’s one good eye looked at her with something akin to weary condescension. “Tony Stark blasted into a secure facility and found the man who created their team, who I had told them all was dead. You will have exactly no bearing on what he intends to do once the shock wears off. There was no reason not to promote you, now that they know—now that you’ll have to manage the Avengers in a world where Phil Coulson is alive.”

They entered the office and he shut the door behind her. He rounded his desk, commanding, “Security measures, activate.”

A female computer voice replied, “Office secure.”

“You’re about to be read in on parts of a project known as TAHITI,” he told her. “Sit down.”

Latham lowered herself into a chair, while he remained looming over her. “Phil Coulson did, in fact, die. Not for long, but he had definitely headed towards the light.”

“How is that possible?”

“We brought him back to life. The scientific details are not important; he’s alive now, and he was always considered an Avenger. You will have one more member of the team to take care of.”

“Certainly, sir.” She swallowed. “What are my chances of remaining on this assignment, sir? Am I just keeping Agent Coulson’s chair warm for him?”

Fury considered her. “We’ll see, Agent Latham. Once Agent Coulson is back in the world, I intend to give him his choice of assignment. Your fate is up to him.”

“Yes sir.”  
-0-  
It was after ten when she returned to the Tower. Instead of going back to her office, she made a stop at Coulson’s new quarters. He was asleep, getting some non-chemically-induced rest.

Aside from the video feed, she’d never set eyes on the man—that was part of his job. His file said he was fifty, but the photo attached showed he didn’t look it. At least, he didn’t normally look his age; right now, pale, thinner, injured, he looked far beyond his age. But Latham suspected once he got up and about, that would soon change.

A glint from the IV stand next to his bed drew her attention. Stepping closer and leaning forward, a small smile tipped the corners of her mouth. Hanging there, like a talisman, were Clint Barton’s dog tags.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We find out later, of course, that Fury was lying about how long Phil was dead, but that’s for the Agents of SHIELD cannon. We’ll let the show address that for now, unless I decide to go majorly AU and continue this. Which I might.


	5. E is for Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil awakens to find his team is still mostly who they used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an F-word near the end. Just letting you know.

Natasha stood against the wall in Phil’s room, watching Bruce and one of the SI doctors give the patient an examination.  
Clint loitered in the doorway. “Shouldn’t he have woken up by now?” his question was aimed at Bruce, but the archer’s eyes didn’t stray from his handler.  
“He woke briefly yesterday when we were settling him in,” Bruce replied. “He wasn’t coherent, and it was only for a few seconds.” he approached Clint and gave him an encouraging glance. “Sometimes the body just needs time to recover. He was on a lot of drugs, not to mention whatever he went through medically after Loki… well, all the scans and exams have yielded positive results—hopefully he’ll be conscious soon.”  
Natasha met her best friend’s eyes and nodded. After a moment, Barton nodded back and leaned into the door frame. “Then we wait.”  
The SI neurologist left, barely missing running into his boss. “Good morning!” Tony breezed in. “Isn’t it a glorious day?”  
“It was.” Clint replied, something like amusement in his drawn face.  
“Awe, don’t be a party pooper! You know, if it weren’t for me and Tasha, you’d still be lamenting our dear departed Agent.”  
“Shut up Stark.”  
“Shut up, he says!” Tony said in outrage, talking to an imaginary someone to the left of Bruce. “My own house, and he tells me to shut up!”  
Natasha rolled her eyes. “We live here too.”  
“Because I invited you.”  
“Pepper invited me.” Bruce added helpfully.  
“So if we don’t let you crow to your heart’s content, you’re going to throw us out?” Clint raised a brow.  
“That’s not what I said.”  
“Sounded like it.”  
“Tasha, did you get the impression that I—”  
“Yes.”  
“Now Tasha, that’s not fair.”  
“I’m backing my partner, Bruce.”  
“We’re all supposed to be partners now. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!”  
“Enough.”  
The four of them looked around to see Phil staring blearily at them. Bruce grabbed him some water, then began to check his reflexes and his pupil response.  
“How do you feel, Agent Coulson?”  
“…Tired. Fuzzy.”  
“That’d be the drugs. You’re still on pain killers, but not enough to keep you unconscious. That’s actually extremely dangerous—I have no idea why a SHIELD facility would allow such a thing.”  
Clint stuck around to see Bruce’s satisfied nod, then turned and left the room. Coulson, thankfully, had focused mostly on Tasha at the foot of his bed.  
“Clint?”  
“In one piece. Mostly.”  
He nodded, clearly not satisfied with her answers. “Does your current handler let you go on like that?” he gestured weakly between her and Tony.  
“That’s why we did this in your room.” Tony sassed back. “Besides, if you couldn’t stop our bickering, Latham doesn’t have a chance. She just doesn’t pull together a threat like you.”  
Coulson’s mouth lifted infinitesimally. “Latham?” he asked Tasha.  
“Intelligence officer out of Melbourne.” She supplied. “Fury’s choice.”  
“I’ll need to see her. And Fury.”  
“I’ll go get Latham,” Tony offered. Natasha raised her brows at his easy agreement. “What? You should go check on Katniss.”  
Natasha smirked. “I will.” She looked back to Phil and rested her hand on his ankle for a second. “I’m glad to see you, Phil.”  
The two Avengers left Coulson with Bruce, and went into the hall.  
“So are you going to tell me what had you awake and dressed before ten AM?” she asked before Tony could head for the elevators. The billionaire let out a huge puff of air through his mouth.  
“Fucking FINALLY, I was dying over here, but Agent’s return to the consciousness derailed my train of awesome news.” He grinned winningly and rushed out, “Pepperandmearegonnagetmarried.”  
Tasha didn’t react, but her eyes held the glint of a smile. “Congratulations.” They nodded somberly at each other. “Now go get Latham, and don’t keep Coulson waiting.”  
“Yes ma’am.”


End file.
